


The Boop Button

by MagpieMorality



Series: Writepie Prompt Fills [77]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Developing Friendships, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Insecurity, M/M, Possibly Pre-Slash, Read It Your Way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23246179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagpieMorality/pseuds/MagpieMorality
Summary: From these prompts:Could you please write Dukexiety with “I know what they’re saying to you seems like it’s true, but it isn’t. Im here for you. Those guys aren’t.” Being in some angst, you know?ANDI was wondering if you could do this prompt with Dukexeity? “Don’t listen to them. You’re the coolest guy I know!”
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders
Series: Writepie Prompt Fills [77]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638634
Comments: 8
Kudos: 102





	The Boop Button

**Author's Note:**

> From these prompts:
> 
> Could you please write Dukexiety with “I know what they’re saying to you seems like it’s true, but it isn’t. Im here for you. Those guys aren’t.” Being in some angst, you know?
> 
> AND
> 
> I was wondering if you could do this prompt with Dukexeity? “Don’t listen to them. You’re the coolest guy I know!”

Remus had long ago learned that people could be cruel. He’d been lucky to learn the lesson while he was at home, loved by his parents and brother, and supported well enough by the junior high he went to. He’d learned that if you were your best friend first then it gave you a kind of armour against all the horrible things people threw out, and it meant you never had to rely on or wait for someone else to remember to say something nice to you, because you could do it yourself. 

Virgil had not been quite so lucky. 

He was a quiet child, with a fairly normal single parent household after an equally fairly normal rocky end to his parents’ relationship when he was five. School was not awful, but he didn’t have quite the backup that Remus did when the kids picked him out as an easy target. He’d tried to make friends, running after the group of nice and not-super-popular kids who were always friendly but seemed to always try and hide from him, too nice to tell him to his face they just didn’t want him around. 

After a while he stopped following them, and he could see from their relieved smiles when they saw him that they thought it was better this way. People could be cruel, even when they didn’t really meant to. 

High school was a different matter, because the school was about three times as large and it was suddenly easier to hide. Thousands of kids running around the hallways, a whole little pocket of kids like Virgil, like Remus, who were the oddballs of their previous schools and now... suddenly weren’t as noticeable. They formed a little pack of their own, scoffing at the popular kids, finding safety in numbers, but even here there was cruelty. 

So it was that he found himself running off to hide under the staircase sniffing into his hoodie. So what if he thought Marvel films were cool? So what if he didn’t know who some indie band were?! That didn’t make him lame! That didn’t make him a sell out or a wannabe cool kid! That- maybe it did though? 

“Virgil! There you are, geez you move fast,” Remus said, skidding under the staircase beside him on his knees and catching his breath. “Woo, I gotta get in shape, grunge-chic really doesn’t cut it when I have to keep up with you. You’re fast, dude!” 

Virgil stared at him, face blank with confusion, and his expression softened to sympathy. “Don’t listen to them. You’re the coolest guy I know!” Remus told him, nudging his arm carefully. “I know what they’re saying to you seems like it’s true, but it isn’t. I’m here for you. Those guys aren’t. They’re just jerks who think they’re cool because they hate everything.” 

“But they know all the right-”

“Woah, now,” Remus held up his hand, bopping Virgil on the nose. It was so out of the blue that Virgil felt his panic recede slightly, pushed out of the way by a startled snort of amusement. “Oh hey, you do laugh! I knew it. Roman owes me so many noogies, man, but I gotta prove it to him so let’s test this. Is it a magic smile button?” He grinned, booping Virgil’s nose again, and making the sound effect for funsies. 

It did indeed make Virgil laugh, slightly helplessly, blinking shyly at Remus with growing awe. How did he do that? Was he some kind of magic spirit? 

Remus crowed in triumph and did it a few more times until Virgil was giggling, smothering the noise with his hand, his eyes crinkling. It felt achy and new on his face, and he liked it. “So that’s that experiment run. Where were we?”

The amusement died away and Virgil sighed. “The guys said-”

“Oh that’s right!” Remus interrupted quickly. “You were gonna say they were right! Well, nu uh, can confirm, not true. Totally false. They think they’re right, but we know better. Besides, who wouldn’t be into Chris Evans’ ass?!” And the giddy feeling was back, just like that. 

“How do you _do_ that?!” Virgil wondered. 

“Do what?”

“Just, you’re so positive. And, it’s like, you don’t care at all what they think?”

Remus beamed proudly at him. “Oh, I assure it’s not just ‘like’ that. Why would it matter what some wannabe teenage rebels think about me? They’re not gonna give me my grades, or probably ever be the people I go to if I need help. They’re just guys with their own things going on.”

“Wow,” Virgil sighed. “I wish I could think like that.” He smiled when Remus shuffled over in front of him for another boop. 

“Just checking that still worked,” Remus grinned back. “But I have an idea. Why don’t you come round after school, and I’ll induct you into the cult of Remus! You too, can learn how to think like me, for the low, low price of maybe buying some soda and letting me beat you at Mariokart a few times. If you’re good. If you’re bad at Mariokart then I’ll just beat you anyway, that still counts. And you gotta let me boop you like, three times an hour at least, for the serotonin. What do you say?”

Was this... friendship?

Virgil blinked slowly at the other boy, his smile turning shy again. “Okay,” he said, lips lifting higher and higher until he was actually beaming back at Remus. “It’s a deal.”

Hanging out with Remus was actually really cool. It turned out later on that friendship was only the beginning of what they could mean to each other, but when they got there, that was actually really cool too. 

And Remus eventually forgot about the boop button, but soon enough Virgil just smiled whenever he saw him anyway, so they chalked it up to a win.


End file.
